Storage

Main Storage: Adata S511 120 GB SSD

Every high-end build deserves an SSD, and picking one wasn’t very difficult since our storage guru Andrew Ku has tested most of them. When faced with the choice between models based on the same controller logic, this editor simply asked his colleague to decide.

Adata’s S511 is one of the fastest 120 GB models we could afford. Though it’s outpaced by some higher-capacity versions, none of those would fit within our budget. Adata’s inclusion of a 3.5” adapter tray would save us even more money, since our low-cost case does not include native support for the 2.5” drive form factor.

Mass Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 2 TB

A 120 GB SSD fills up fairly quickly when lots of applications are hosted on it. And data can chew up anything left over, particularly when a system is designed as much for video encoding as it is for gaming. Fortunately, 2 TB of magnetic storage is cheap when performance isn’t your priority.

The only functional feature reduction from our previous build is the loss of Blu-ray support. Unfortunately, we needed to make that change in order to free up room in the budget for increased graphics capability. While we still recommend a Blu-ray drive in all high-end builds, we’re counting on the sacrifice here to boost our benchmark performance elsewhere.

DVD write speed improves to 24x compared to the previous build’s 16x, so our downgrade isn’t a complete loss. This OEM version of the iHAS224-06 even includes Nero 9 Essentials to assist burning and playback needs, and the entire package costs a mere $21.

After the article reviewing the micro-stuttering issue that is being seen with multiple graphics card systems, it would make sense if this was addressed in any build that has more than 1 card. It may be that the computer performs better in the benchmarks but if the stuttering is pronounced, this should be held against it in the final roundup.